Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-02-19
THE HYDRAULIC-DAM BILLS.

THE HYDRAUL1C-DAM BILLS.
1t may be taken as granted that the bill
which practically seeks to legalize by
draulic-mining methods as now in use, will
pass the Assembly. 1t must he fought now
in the Senate. If it passes that body and
becomes law it will be serious blow to
Sacramento and the valley section. 1t
will, we believe, have the immediate effect
to encourage violations of the law in n.y.
draulicking, and to augment the menace
that process constitutes to all river prop
erty. The more the bill is examined the
more firmly convinced are we that it is in
tended to undo all that has been gained by
the friends of the valley in the Courts.
While we entertain the belief that the bill
is beyond the constitutional power of the
Legislature to enact, that it invades mali
enable rights the Courts will defend from
trespass, that it flies in the face of Federal
laws, still its passage and approval will
complicate the whole question of river and
valley protection from the flow of "slick-
ems" and greatly discourage the people in
their efforts to save the river and valley
from the demoralizing food of descending
sands In the condemnation of lands for
the erection Of restraining dams is involved
the question of valuing, possibly, mineral
lands, the worth of which are an unknown
quantity, and this is, therefore, very OBJ
jectlonable clause the power to be given
to erect dams is not fortified by any re-
quirements for their maintenance. The
mere reservation of a per cent. of fund
for the contingency of abandonment Of the
dams, burdens the State with the duty and
cost of keeping up the proposed works
thereafter, at the expense of all the peo-
pie. This whole provision is vague,
deals with unknown quantities and
is devoid of the ordinary guards common
business experience would throw about
such enterprises. 1t is not proposed to
hold back the matter carried in suspen-
sion, yet that is precisely the material of
which we have most cause to complain in
the valley. The bill proposes to set up
gigantic water combinations that can crush
out the drift, quartz and other miners
above these proposed dams. So objection
able was the provision requiring all those
above dam TO join with the dam builders
or cease work, that the committee was yes
teraay driven to strike it out. Neverthe-
less, the menace to small miners remains.
If the calamity of this bill becoming a
law falls upon the valley, and dams are
built we shall hear of suits by the build
ers to enjoin miners not in the combina
ton from flowing slickens into their
"ponds they will invoke precisely the
same rule of law the valley has made
effective against hydraulic miners. We
have met few frank, outspoken hydraulic
miners who have admitted, pityingly, that
their success means the ruin of rivers and
river lands, and that the valley takes all
the risk there is in the scheme Of dams for
new hydraulic mining. Some of these,
who would be put upon the rack were their
names known, have gone to friends in the
valley and warned them of the inevitable
if hydraulic mining methods continue be-
hind dams to restrain new debris deposits.
They have frankly admitted that these
bills for dams are only legislative shields
for continuing that process which State
and Federal Courts have condemned, which
Congress has declared to be dangerous to
property, destructive of navigation, and
so worthy to be stopped, that it has
authorized two of the chief departments
of the Government to intervene and
invoke the aid of the Courts 10 check the
destruction of navigable waters. 1t is
true that in the committee Thursday even
ing distinguished advocate Of the bill
proved, to his own satisfaction at least,
that it is all myth aboHt such vast guam
titles of slickens coming down upon US;
that we only dream hydraulic mining has
so filled our streams; that We merely labor
under delusion of the senses in all this
matter But when all this is said and
done, and by logic it is proven that granite
is lead, it remains that we kaow granite to
be anything else under the sun than lead.
We know that the suspensory matter is
lust that which constitutes the greater
menace to the valley; inst that which fills
our rivers, leaves heavy residnum of min
ing slum in our tea-pots and gives gritty
consistency to the coffee in our cups. We
look out upon orchards submerged in al
most impalpable hydraulic dust and mud,
and over acres where once riehly-produe-
tive gardens fiourished, but where now
only waste of slickens is to be seen; we